The photographs are as galling as they are predictable: U.S. Congressmen Jack Bergman, Tom Suozzi, and Jonathan Jackson grinning alongside Pakistan’s de facto ruler, a man whose forces crushed protests on November 26, 2024, killing dozens of unarmed civilians. This betrayal stings all the more because it comes mere weeks after Bergman posed with Pakistan’s former president, tweeting demands to “Free Imran Khan.” The hypocrisy is a dull blade, slicing through the hopes of millions. Bergman, once a vocal supporter of the Pakistan Democracy Act – a bill languishing in Congress under Joe Wilson’s stewardship – has unmasked himself. That Act, meant to fortify Pakistan’s democratic aspirations, now feels like a cruel mirage, its promise drowned in the shallow waters of diplomatic photo-ops and mineral deals.

For those who dared to hope that the U.S., even under Trump’s erratic stewardship, might nudge Pakistan’s junta toward democracy, this visit is a gut punch. Bergman’s delegation, joined by Suozzi and Jackson, met not only the army chief but also glad-handed Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, who had the gall to call Pakistan a “wall against terrorism” while his regime keeps dissenters like Imran Khan captive – nearly two years now in a crucible meant to break him. The delegation’s platitudes, praising Pakistan’s “strategic potential” and signing tech-training MoUs, drip with transactional cynicism. Democracy, it seems, is a small price to pay for a slice of Pakistan’s mineral wealth. The congressmen’s smiles reveal a bitter truth: for all their........

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